Paris: Pompidou a Poto-Poto

Guy Maddin meets Erich von Stroheim. 

And I meet a whore.

Well, I am a prostitute in this never produced 1933 Stroheim script entitled Poto-Poto. Udo Kier is my pimp but my new love turns out to be another pimp -- a priest -- the intense Slimane Dazi (so powerful in A Prophet). I must say I enjoyed kissing a priest. A priest played by him. The talented Ariane Labed plays Udo's new acquisition, something she's none too happy about. And a lot more happens. This is of course, all part of Maddin's SPIRITISMES shooting at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Here is a short, though not exact synopsis written by Guy's team:

"In an effort to acquire enough money for the medicine her dying mother requires, Masha, at the roulette wheel of a riverboat casino/brothel, bets herself in marriage against the wealth of sadistic sugar baron, Jan. She loses, and is forced to marry the horrible man. When he makes her the brothel’s madam, she exploits her new position in order to diminish and humiliate her new husband."

The cast includes Kier, Jacques Bonnaffé, Amira Casar, Geraldine Chaplin, Miguel Cueva, Slimane Dazi, Jeanne de France, Ariane Labed and Sherpa Macilu. I was thrown in last minute (Guy always does this to me... so here I am. I'm Udo's opiate addled prostitute. It's much easier that way. 

I'm just happy I get to make out with a priest. I always wanted to do that.

Watch it all here.

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